Figured I needed to add an update regarding my previous posts about my new Diamond 6950...back on pages 235 and 236...

I had not looked at the card after my last post, presuming all was well and it was running as a 6970 properly...

I have however, since discovered that this card does in fact have a Dual Bios Switch on it, very small and somewhat hard to spot at first. Moving the switch over changes the card to what appears to be default 6950 specs...

I am not sure if Diamond pre-loaded both BIOS' on the card, or if someone actually did attempt to flash one BIOS and saved the other, so both are on the card.

Now, with the switch set to run the card as a 6950, I have found that I can not do much in terms of overclocking the card. Using MSI Afterburner, I can only increase the core clock from stock 800, up to 840... I've not tried yet doing any such testing with the card switched to the 6970 Bios...

As it is, it seems to run just fine without any problems with either BIOS active. I've pushed it through every Benchmark I have numerous times, and have spent hours playing Crysis 2 on it, as well as other games...

The only thing I don't like on it, is that to seems to run rather hot, as previously mentioned in my earlier posts, and the fact that while it is switched to the default 6950 Bios, it can not be clocked over 840 on the core. I guess I am used to the fact that my 5850 could be cranked well beyond 900 without doing any Bios tweaking... but thats a different card entirely, but because of that I sort of expected a stock, reference 6950 to be able to clock higher then 840?

Now, I have just about, a week left, on the store return policy at Frys. I am considering either getting an aftermarket air cooler to put on it... or exchanging it for an MSI TF2.

But I am curious to know if a stock, reference 6950, should go over 840 on the clock?

I am going to switch it back to the 6970 BIOS when I get home tonight, and see how much OC headroom that has...Edited by cjc75 - 8/19/11 at 11:50am

Figured I needed to add an update regarding my previous posts about my new Diamond 6950...back on pages 235 and 236...

I had not looked at the card after my last post, presuming all was well and it was running as a 6970 properly...

I have however, since discovered that this card does in fact have a Dual Bios Switch on it, very small and somewhat hard to spot at first. Moving the switch over changes the card to what appears to be default 6950 specs...

I am not sure if Diamond pre-loaded both BIOS' on the card, or if someone actually did attempt to flash one BIOS and saved the other, so both are on the card.

Now, with the switch set to run the card as a 6950, I have found that I can not do much in terms of overclocking the card. Using MSI Afterburner, I can only increase the core clock from stock 800, up to 840... I've not tried yet doing any such testing with the card switched to the 6970 Bios...

As it is, it seems to run just fine without any problems with either BIOS active. I've pushed it through every Benchmark I have numerous times, and have spent hours playing Crysis 2 on it, as well as other games...

The only thing I don't like on it, is that to seems to run rather hot, as previously mentioned in my earlier posts, and the fact that while it is switched to the default 6950 Bios, it can not be clocked over 840 on the core. I guess I am used to the fact that my 5850 could be cranked well beyond 900 without doing any Bios tweaking... but thats a different card entirely, but because of that I sort of expected a stock, reference 6950 to be able to clock higher then 840?

Now, I have just about, a week left, on the store return policy at Frys. I am considering either getting an aftermarket air cooler to put on it... or exchanging it for an MSI TF2.

But I am curious to know if a stock, reference 6950, should go over 840 on the clock?

I am going to switch it back to the 6970 BIOS when I get home tonight, and see how much OC headroom that has...

Sorry for the wall ..
BUT :/
IF its a fully operational 6970 BIOS and not a modded 6950 , then keep it , it's the powertune Read up about powertune and all..
Extra heat ?? More performance. It's a tradeoff you must decide what's best for you.

TF2s are nice ( risky unlocking) but TF3's are amazing ( sig.)

The core clock limitations can be taken care of with a modded BIOS or modded ccc I think so .. not sure. My unlocking unlocked the limits to 1300 I think ...

So just got home from work and moved the dual Switch back into position 1, which has the 6970 BIOS on it.

MSI Afterburner now gives me the option to OC the Core clock, from the default 880, up to 950... and I can increase the Ram Clock from 1375, up to 1450... which isn't all that bad to me... Not sure if either can or should, do more then that, but I know my case can't handle much more heat! LOL

I will probably just throw an aftermarket cooler on this Card, as I would prefer it running cooler then it is!

Reseat and washer mod it ..
You'll see temp drops of 5-10C instantly.
ALSO ,
if you have a cramped case with no window ( cause what I'm suggesting could look ugly depending on skill) why not come up with a custom (shroud ) ducting say from a high CFM 140mm fan ( even 120 would really do well) to the GFX card's fans directly ?? that way the hot air that gets exhausted randomly will circulate around the case ( no better than right now , but no worse either) whil the temps on your GFX card will rival , if not beat say a similar setup ina HAF X ?? Say what ?

I just did a PSU test in OCCT and noticed that my GPU's core clock was not stable, it was jumping every second, so I gave it +10% power in the driver, but that was not enough, still jumped but much much less, then I gave it +20% and it became stable.
Any reason for this? Shouldn't the core clock be stable on defaults?Attachment 225244
You can see the difference when I added +10%Edited by Akusho - 8/20/11 at 2:07pm

yeahh .. OCCT pulls tremendous power.. now powerune is in place to keep TDPs in check , so that massive overheating doesn't take places.. while this is mostly to have cards conform to the atx spec (think 6990s) , in othercases , it differentiates one product from another ( a 6950 and 6970 are 50W apart) so even on unlocking ( not a full flash) , effectively , a 6970 is still > a 6950 ( unlocked) when power draws are high (like OCCT) .

Just BTW, be careful what you do with OCCT. It can f things up , big time.

Earlier, the VRMs ( I'mn talking 48xx cards) couldn't handle the load and the card would crash .
then the 58xx had in build protection and the cards would throttle via VGA-BIOS.
Now the 69xx ( what should have been the darned 68xx) have this in both hardware and more intrusively in software!)

I think power states can be disabled all together but u lose dynamic 2D and 3D clocking( and volting) too!

No ,
the lock , will NOT stay stable even on defaults after a long peroid of time .
YMMV.